Grandparents are particularly vulnerable to voice-impersonation scams, warns Crane Hassold, senior director of threat research at Agari. Hassold says his own grandmother lost $1,500 to fraudsters who called pretending to be him and in need of bail money. Scammers are skilled at “priming their victims” and rely on a sense of urgency to convince their targets to hand over their money, he adds. Deepfake voice scams are a rising concern, says Justin Hutchens, director of research and development at cybersecurity firm Set Solutions. However, Hassold says it’s too early to assume that voice-impersonation scams are being driven entirely by deepfakes as the traditional analog version is still in circulation.
AI-generated voice deepfakes still have room for improvement.
